READ: Former Ukrainian ambassador blames ‘questionable motives’ for dismissal

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, on Friday told Congress that she lost her job due to “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

Yovanovitch, who is providing closed-door testimony as part of the House impeachment inquiry, was dismissed as envoy to Ukraine in May.

{mosads}She said in her opening statement that President Trump pressured the State Department to remove her although her superiors believed she had “done nothing wrong.”

“Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the President, I was nevertheless incredulous that the U.S. government chose to remove an Ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives,” she told lawmakers. 

Read Yovanovitch’s full opening statement below, as first obtained by The Washington Post: